Advantages

Disadvantages

A useful little winter warmer

During the recent cold snap, my duvet just wasn't up to the job of keeping me warm at night, so I decided to invest in a blanket. Looking in Cargo, I came across a selection of these 'Snuggle Touch' blankets, in a wide range of colours, for just £12.99, which seemed like a good price considering the fact I'd seen many more expensive ones. After debating which colour to choose, I finally settled on the deep purple- it's a shade I really like, and was colourful without being too bright.

The blanket was tightly folded when I bought it, and secured by a large elastic band, so it was quite hard to tell how thick it would be. On getting it home, I was disappointed to find that it was very thin- so much so that I felt my fingers would almost poke through it if I pressed too hard! Mind you, I should probably have expected this given the material- it's that super soft microfibre fleece that so many dressing gowns are made of. Fortunately, this material does tend to be quite warm, despite its thinness, due to the furry texture of it. So I wasn't giving up on my 'Snuggle Touch' just yet!

Made of 100% polyester, you wouldn't necessarily expect this blanket to be comfortable, but it really is. Although it's obviously not natural, and doesn't really look or feel natural, it's very soft, as well as being durable. It also has the advantage of being machine washable (at 30 degrees) and can also be tumble dried.

One disadvantage of this blanket is that it's not as warm as woollen ones I've used in the past. However, it certainly made a noticeable difference in warmth when I slept with it over my duvet, and provided that extra bit of heat I needed to get a good night's sleep, despite the cold temperatures outside. It's also a lot lighter than a woollen blanket, which is perfect if you don't like that weighty feeling of having several layers on top of you.

This blanket is large enough to cover a single bed, and for the price, I'd say it's good value. While it's not the warmest option, it's certainly proved very useful over these winter months, although I'm living in hope that I'll soon be able to put it aside until next winter!